Impetus
by Red Tale
Summary: G1: Sunstreaker and Bumblebee. A stimulus or impulse, a moving force that sparks momentum.
1. Chapter 1

Impetus - Red Tale

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What can I do for you, Sunstreaker?", Optimus inquired.

"I have to leave, Optimus. For less than an Earth-cycle. Then I'll be back."

"You're aware the decepticons have been spotted near the oil fields to the south? A battle is impending and your skills will be needed."

"I need to go", Sunstreaker repeated, "And I need Bumblebee to come with me."

"Bumblebee?", Optimus stammered, thrown by the unusual request. Sunstreaker never "needed" anyone, except sometimes his twin.

"Yes. I'll bring him back", he added, as if his abandoning Bumblebee somewhere was a concern.

"I'm not sure this is a good time to remove two from our limited forces. Are you sure you can't wait a few cycles?"

"I'm sure. I, we, must leave right away. In fact I'll need Omega Supreme, at least to get there."

"And where are you going?"

"I'd rather not say."

Optimus contemplated the golden warrior before him. Army Dicipline was lost on this one, he neither led nor obeyed. If he wasn't given permission he would simply quit, leave, and rejoin when he returned. He'd done it before.

"Will you be in communication?"

"No."

"Does your brother know where you'll be?"

"No."

"Does Bumblebee?"

"I haven't taken him yet", Sunstreaker pointed out.

"Are you sure you've thought this through?", Optimus appealed to Sunstreaker's logic chips to know avail.

"That I need to go? Yes, I've thought it through."

Several astro-seconds passed as Optimus considered Sunstreakers proposal.

"It doesn't seem I can do anything but let you go, Sunstreaker. But how are you going to persuade Bumblebee?"

"Thanks, Optimus", Sunstreaker replied and left without awknowledging the questing.


	2. Chapter 2

Impetus 2

Bumblebee analyzed the board, trying to go through hundreds of tactics in under a minute. Finally he placed a black stone down on the edge of Spike's eastern most white one, but could not yet capture Spike's stones. That would come in about four moves, depending on what Spike did next.

Unfortunately he would never know what Spike would do next, as a flash of gold burst into the room and came between him and the multiple, simultaneous battles represented on the simple Go board. For the first time in their millions of years fighting on the same side, Sunstreaker directly addressed Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee, get ready, you're coming with me", Sunstreaker commanded, with the aura of authority.

"What about the decepticons?", Bumblebee clarified, aware of the impending full scale attack.

"Optimus knows you're coming with me", Sunstreaker replied impatiently, "Now come on."

Bumblebee exchanged glances with his partner.

"If Optimus says go with him you better go with him", Spike advised.

"Okay", Bumblebee agreed uneasily. He'd never questioned Prime before, but sending him off with Sunstreaker? Now?

Sunstreaker hovered around Bumblebee, motioning him towards Omega Supreme's launch area outside the base.

"Omega, prepare for launch", Sunstreaker announced.

"Destination: unknown", Omega boomed as he obiediently opened for them.

" Rome, Italy. But don't land inside it, I don't want you crushing everything", Sunstreaker emphasized, showing strange concern for humans.

"Purpose: unknown"

"Because we have to."

"Reason: not accepted."

"It's a Secret Mission. Optimus knows about it. We have to hurry."

Apparantly Omega decided to accept Sunstreakers' answer and they took off.

"So, ah, Omega, how you've been", Bumblebee asked. He didn't see the giant ally too often, Omega required so much power that he was only online in periods of great need.

"Status: bored", Omega replied distantly, "Flight: not enjoyed."

"Have you ever played the game of Go?"

"Conversation: not interesting", Omega stated dispassionately.

Between Omega's lack of interest in socializing and Sunstreakers focused buffing of his paint job, Bumblebee found himself quite lonely. 'I should have asked to take Spike along', he sighed, 'But Sunstreaker came on so quick. He hasn't even told me what we're doing here. And where's Sideswipe? At least he would talk.'

Finally the adventure which no one had enjoyed ended 100 miles outside Rome.

"You just need to drop us off. We'll make it back on our own", Sunstreaker explained.

"Thanks Omega", Bumblebee waved.

"Gratitude: appreciated", Omega replied as he blasted off.

"So, Sunstreaker, now can you tell me what we're doing here?", Bumblebee inquired.

"No", Sunstreaker replied, transforming into car mode and taking off towards Rome.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Well, guys, honestly, I got a little tired of this story before I finished it. As it would be wrong to just leave it sitting there half-finished, I have lived up to my responsibilities as an author and properly concluded it. But…I went ahead and jumped over the next couple hours in the story. Nothing much happened, really…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gold light shone down on Bumblebee from all directions, and his own metallic body reflected it back into the eyes of the humans around him, who were already overwhelmed with his presence in one of the holiest places of Earth. Bumblebee, however, was not here for the religious appreciation, even as he studied the intricate set of tapestries before him depicting the lives of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in richly colored forms.

"This is beautiful", Bumblebee radioed to Sunstreaker, who was waiting outside in car form, as there was no way for the building to accommodate his robot form. Bumblebee had only learned ten minutes ago that this was the reason his presence had been so adamantly requested, Sunstreaker desired to see the interior so much that he was using Bumblebee's scout methods to see for him, and as he could not wait a second more for a more traditional playback that Bumblebee usually does, they had actually arranged a wireless configuration allowing Sunstreaker to see from Bumblebee's eyes. The disadvantages were that Sunstreaker was effectively blind himself now, and it used a lot more energy on Bumblebee's side, which was a precious resource. But Bumblebee's eager-to-please attitude combined with Sunstreaker's persuasive ego made this a logical action.

"Look up", Sunstreaker radioed back.

Bumblebee obliged. 68 feet above him more rich colors formed several scenes of humans, some clothed and some naked, in all kinds of poses. Bumblebee had not yet been to a museum on Earth, the closest he had seen to "art" would be ads in magazines Spike and Carly sometimes left. Even Jazz, with all his interest in Earth Culture, had only studied the audio part of it and might not yet even realize there was a visual part. The art displays on Cybertron, such as Sunstreaker at one time contributed too, were more abstract art, shapes that created meaning through apparent random intersection with each other, the only time transformers and their world were depicted were in science and history graphics or star maps.

"Can you zoom in?", Sunstreaker asked anxiously.

"Where?"

"In the right corner. I want to study how he drew on the curves while keeping the perspectives all equal from below. That's really amazing."

Bumblebee zoomed in on a corner in the right side. He realized too late it was a scene of a man holding down another man (both fully clothed) raising a sword up high, apparently about to decapitate him. This gruesomeness didn't seem to fit in with the surrounding pictures of people reading in thrones and standing around naked. It was rather disturbing, but he wasn't going to pull away now and irritate Sunstreaker in mid-study.

"I guess they've had a long war here too", Bumblebee remarked to Sunstreaker after a minute.

"I wonder why they don't run around naked all the time", Sunstreaker remarked, "I mean, all the fabric must weigh them down, and it doesn't offer much protection."

"We'll have to ask Spike", Bumblebee replied.

"Can you slowly scan the whole thing?", Sunstreaker inquired.

"How slowly?"

"Let's plan on being here a few hundred astro-minutes".

"Alright", Bumblebee agreed wearily. Sure he found the art interesting but…a few hundred astro-minutes of slow scanning? Sunstreaker better remember this.

Needless to say, not much happened for the next few hundred astro-minutes. Finally they reached the last corner, and Sunstreaker had his fill of fine art.

"Okay, let's go", he declared abruptly.

"Are you sure? There's art all over the place here, we've only seen the ceiling."

"That's all I wanted to see."

"Sure. Okay."

They broke off their connection and shortly Bumblebee emerged into the bright sunlight outside, walked though the Vatican City to where Sunstreaker had been allowed to park, and joined him. Together they drove off.

They mostly drove in silence, but about halfway back, Sunstreaker surprised Bumblebee with a simple word.

"Thanks."


End file.
